Quincy J Walters

Quincy Walters is a reporter and backup host for WGCU.

He started in public radio as an intern at WUSF, the NPR member station for the Tampa Bay area. A year later, he was a production intern for NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered in Washington, D.C. After Quincy’s internship, he returned to WUSF as a reporter.

His stories have aired on Weekend All Things Considered.

Quincy earned a degree in English with a concentration in creative writing from the University of South Florida.

David Williams and Alex Massie sat side by side at W.P. Franklin Lock along the Caloosahatchee River, waiting for something to nibble at their fishing lines. They were catching fish to eat, despite high levels of fecal bacteria recently closing down a beach just a few yards from their fishing spot.

Williams, of Alva, said he's been fishing along the Caloosahatchee for 65 years. He's lived off of the river. And he's not concerned about the high levels of E. Coli in the water.

"It's just a happening thing," Williams said. "There's nothing you can do about it."

April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month. About one million Americans are affected by the neurodegenerative disease, and now, there’s an improv comedy troupe in Naples dedicated to people diagnosed with Parkinson’s and their partners.

The City of Fort Myers wants to remove lime sludge from a plot of land in the Dunbar community. For decades during the 20th century, the city used a vacant lot in the predominately-black neighborhood near downtown to dump a toxic byproduct of the water treatment process.

The City of Fort Myers held an open house Thursday night for the residents of Dunbar. The city wanted to update the predominately black neighborhood about the arsenic found on a plot of land that the city used as a dumpsite dating back to the 1960s.

The nation-wide opioid epidemic is getting worse. According to Florida's Department of Law Enforcement, there were nearly 6,000 opioid-related deaths in our state in 2016--a 35 percent increase from 2015. While there is no single solution, Naples' David Lawrence Center is using a grant to use a different approach to combat the problem.

For decades during the 20th Century, the City of Fort Myers dumped lime sludge—a byproduct of the water treatment processes—in Dunbar, a predominately black neighborhood near downtown. Last year, tests were done on the dumpsite and high arsenic levels were discovered. Tuesday, the city council was briefed on an assessment of the site and what options the city has.

President Donald Trump’s mental fitness has been called into question ever since he announced his candidacy. Partially based on early morning Twitter tirades, people on the internet have assigned various mental illnesses to the president; from mood disorders to personality disorders. The trend causes discomfort for those living with mental illness and the people who treat them.

Cold temperatures are breaking records in many parts of the country, bringing snow to Northern Florida, and sending a chill down the entire peninsula. And mosquitoes aren't too fond of the winter weather.

"When we moved to Southwest Florida from the Pacific Northwest we were surprised that Florida doesn't have a plastic bag ban plastic bags that end up in the ocean hurt wildlife and people get used to bringing their own reusable bags and it seems like a no brainer to keep the state beautiful and protect the environment.”

This summer, an outgoing City of Fort Myers employee revealed that the city used land near downtown as a dumpsite for decades during the 20th century. In time, Dunbar--a predominately black neighborhood--grew around that dumping area. Since June, the city has tried to address the problem with tests and community input. This week, additional groundwater tests were done and the city retained legal council to contend with potential lawsuits.

Satellite images this month show a harmful red tide algal bloom festering in the Gulf of Mexico-- mere miles away from the shorelines of Southwest Florida. But birds have been telling us this for over a month.

Hundreds of people flocked to a gun show in Fort Myers this past weekend. Sunday also marked a week since the largest recorded mass shooting in modern U.S. history, where 58 people were shot and killed at a music festival in Las Vegas.

Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection used ground penetrating radar on several plots of land in a predominantly black section of Fort Myers this week. For decades the City of Fort Myers used one of the plots to dump lime sludge, a by-product of water a treatment plant. That lot is being tested, along with nearby private properties and water wells, after residents found out and became concerned.

You may have heard of feral cats, but have you heard of feral chickens? Feral chickens are now the subject of evolutionary research. And the ones in Tampa's Ybor City and Key West are perfect fodder to study.

The City of Fort Myers held a workshop this week to inform residents about what kind of testing will be done on a dump site in a predominantly black neighborhood. Back in the 1960's, the City dumped a byproduct from a water treatment plant in an empty lot in the neighborhood known as Dunbar. For decades, the city didn’t tell residents what that byproduct was. It included arsenic.

Toxic algal blooms have been happening more often in the rivers off Lake Okeechobee. One of the main causes is phosphorous runoff from wastewater and farmland. But a new filter may make algal blooms caused by wastewater a thing of the past.

The infrastructure that prevents Lake Okeechobee from spilling over is old. And that's why Congress allocated $49.6 million to help repair it this fiscal year.

U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), who's the founder and Co-Chairman of the Everglades Caucus, toured the Herbert Hoover Dike on Lake Okeechobee Monday. He got an update on the dike's rehabilitation projects from the Commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville district.

When a child dies, it affects a whole community. That's why every other month, people from hospitals, law enforcement and health departments review cases of criminal or accidental deaths of kids. It's called the Child Death Review. Monday, the group focused on accidental deaths in Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties, because it says those deaths go up as school gets out for summer.

Saturday is "Lionfish Awareness and Removal Day" in Florida. Lionfish are an invasive species off Florida's coasts. People in southwest Florida are studying the fish's impact and others are helping to keep the invasive species' population under control.

A Collier County non-profit mental health and substance abuse program for kids has opened up a new program that offers intensive daily therapy and doesn’t require hospitalization. It's the first kind in the area.

Evacuations due to wildfires have been lifted in Lee and Collier Counties. 7000 acres burned in Collier at 30th Avenue in Golden Gate Estates that was 50% contained as of Sunday afternoon. Three homes were destroyed. The cause of that fire is still under investigation. The News-press reports an arson investigator says a fire in Lehigh Acres, which destroyed 4 homes may have been caused by a cigarette. WGCU’s Quincy Walters spent the weekend keeping up with the changing conditions in Collier.